Reflection on adolescent girls of crucial relevance

Plenty has been said about how this comes as a shock to many young people, who are unable to talk about it except to mother or someone else that close. And if there is some difficulty in that direction the young people start facing difficulties, like needlessly missing classes.

Primary and secondary schools across our country are currently closed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, so this is not being directly experienced. But it will return in no time, as preparations are being readied to return school life to normal.

Still, activists and even authorities like the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) can use this gap to focus on what more could be done in that direction, or programmes completed where work had already started. It is a vital aspect of hygiene.

Without ability to organise an actual gathering, the media have been playing the role of facilitator in the exchange of views on the issue, and some helpful interviews have been conducted with some young people in different situations.

Some reflections raised are sobering, others painful, but on the whole there is an effort in families and among various organisations to minimise the difficulties or inconveniences that young girls encounter in such situations.

The issue is how far this is actually the case and where corrective action is needed with respect to what UN agencies set out in the ‘leave no one behind’ spirit.

There are, for instance laws in the country on affairs with pupils and students, but we still witness many cases of child pregnancies.

There have reports of the school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic having a bitter taste to it in that regard, the fear being that a sizable number of young girls will not be returning to school on account of pregnancy.

At times, trouble in raising cash for daily needs pushes desperate school girls into the arms of people they would gladly have done without. This calls for little elaboration, as it is an ages-old challenge.

In the final analysis, the problem with meeting girls’ needs when they start experiencing menstruation is an aspect of biting poverty that encompasses many families – and mistreatment at the psychological level when that situation comes up links poverty to instability in families.

Stressed people have short answers and are more prone to violence, so children with extra needs or actual reason not to be satisfied with the situation in the home will face the brunt of these tensions.

That is how some sentimental transitions occur in life and, once this happens it is difficult to set back the clock, as the mentality too will have shifted.

All these are areas where activists need to put their heads together to see how many young people they can actually reach and help out, especially through networking at all levels.

Having well wishers they can call upon at any time will help, and during this trying period most of that has to be done rather privately. It is a daunting task but it can be done, if everyone plays their part. And there should be no shame in doing so.